As the fall semester approaches its end, some Emerson students, faculty, and staff say Emerson’s new community-building initiative and interim policy widened a rift in the community. Some say it’s limiting free speech, while others hope it will turn the campus into a safe space.
EmersonTogether launched in August to “build a stronger, more equity-centered Emersonian community,” according to the college’s website.
The initiative, run by Emerson faculty and staff, came as a response to the campus turmoil following pro-Palestinian demonstrations and arrests last spring.
“It’s a really open initiative,” said Paul Mihailidis, co-chair of the content team on EmersonTogether and a professor in the journalism department at Emerson. “It is from the community, for the community.”
This semester, the initiative hosted events such as “Can We Talk” with New Student Orientation, a post-election panel with Marlboro Institute faculty, and a two-part lecture series on Israel-Palestine by Peter Krause.
Prior to his EmersonTogether events, Krause led a lecture for Emerson’s Department of Journalism earlier in the semester, which drew high attendance.
“[Krause] was the right person for this,” said Pavel Zlatin, a member of the Emersonians Against Campus Antisemitism (EACA) faculty and staff group. “He’s objective and a knowledgeable person.”
Krause is an associate professor of political science at Boston College who hosts teachings about his research on Middle East politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His first lecture was about having constructive conversations on the history of Israelis and Palestinians, while the second event focused on the language surrounding the conflict and its interpretation.
But Adam Nuñez, a junior journalism student who was arrested in last spring’s pro-Palestinian encampment, said he left Krause’s lecture “disappointed, angry, and upset.”
“It wasn’t giving people a fair chance to hear both sides, get an understanding, and come to a discussion,” he said.
Nuñez attended Krause’s first lecture through Zoom and submitted several questions before the designated Q&A. He said moderators eventually addressed his questions but did not read them in full.
“I felt that it was intentional,” Nuñez said.
“If the goal was to have a conversation [about Israel-Palestine] … Given the information [in the lecture], the only side you could have a conversation with is the Israeli side,” he said.
Lily Minkoff, a freshman communications student, attended Krause’s second lecture on language and said she left it underwhelmed.
“I knew all the stuff he was talking about so I wish he went a bit deeper,” Minkoff added.
Minkoff said the conversation covered a basic understanding of the conflict without diving into much of the historical context.
According to Mihailidis, ideas for community events are presented by many different groups such as students, faculty, the Student Government Association (SGA), and the initiative’s content team to name a few. Ideas are then brought up to the coordination team and leadership team, which is comprised of faculty, staff, and members of the executive administration.
The initiative is primarily focused on “working together,” according to Mihailidis. “There’s not really a hierarchical structure.”
Zlatin said EACA has been working closely with the administration and other campus groups to identify and curb antisemitism on campus. He added that this semester has been quieter in terms of protest.
“The EmersonTogether initiative deserves a lot of credit for that,” he said.
Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated outside the Israeli consulate and gathered at the Boylston Place Alley earlier in the semester for the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7. Protesters spray-painted messages on the ground and building walls and hung a banner on the Alley entryway.
The college administration’s interim policies forbid Emerson students, faculty, and staff from demonstrating in the Alley, among other locations. However, no arrests were made.
Minkoff is a member of Hillel, an international Jewish organization dedicated to supporting Jewish students on campus.
The group has received criticism over its support for Israel, and some student groups signed a letter calling for its removal from campus last spring.
Minkoff said she worried about the protests before attending Emerson but had not experienced any harassment by the community this semester except messages against Hillel online.
However, tensions are still high on campus between community members and the administration, according to Minkoff.
“My orientation leaders were saying how admins are hypocrites and don’t respect free speech at all,” she said. “They said the president was responsible for the arrests.”
Nuñez said it feels like “a ghost town on campus, and it’s because of Emerson’s policies on free speech and protest.”
For Nuñez, these policies harm more than they protect.
“I think that EmersonTogether is intentionally made to silence the pro-Palestinian side on campus,” he said. “As a school that’s known as a communication school, this should be a school that strives to protect free speech, and instead, it completely dismantled it.”
He added that he disagrees with the claims of antisemitism in the protests.
“As a Jewish student, it’s hard to understand how someone could not feel safe at those protests if I was at so many of them,” he said.
Last April, the Anti-Defamation League, one of the only organizations that tracks antisemitism globally, found that 73% of Jewish college students have experienced or witnessed some form of antisemitism since the beginning of the 2023–2024 school year.
Illona Yosefov is an instructional technologist at Emerson and a member of the Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP). The group has been a strong advocate for the pro-Palestinian movements on campus and supported students at the encampment.
“I have never felt more isolated on this campus than I have this semester,” Yosefov said. “EmersonTogether is an oxymoron.”
She said the “Can We Talk” event, which hosted actor Penn Badgley and Dr. Nura Mowzoon, missed the point.
“You’re going to invite an actor because he’s popular and cute to have a conversation about being polite to each other online? That’s going to heal? Solve something? Help people connect more? No,” she said.
For Yosefov, working toward dialogue is important, but it cannot be done until the administration takes accountability for last spring.
She said the best way to move forward is “acknowledging which mistakes were made, apologizing, and bringing in people from the community, especially representatives of those who have been hurt, to make new policies and move to fix it.”
Zlatin said that “other groups, like Hillel, tried to create some sort of dialogue with pro-Palestine groups on campus, but it didn’t go well.”
Colette Shaw, a community standards administrator at Emerson, said EmersonTogether is a “great start for dialogue.”
The Office of Community Standards holds Emerson community members accountable for violations of the Code of Community Standards. They help students, faculty, and staff report any code violations they witness.
Shaw said EmersonTogether programs offer a good framework for other topics that require conversation, such as the election result discussion panel.
“There was a lot of criticism of colleges for doing cookies and milk programs, mental health programs, and not the hard stuff,” Shaw said. “I was so proud to be part of Emerson, that we hosted things that allowed people to talk.”
Shaw added that students who are not sure if the way they want to protest aligns with the Code of Conduct should reach out to Community Standards.
“People think there are two things in discipline, either nothing happens and we ignore, or we kick everybody out of school,” she said. “We operate in the middle.”
Students can learn about how to give their feedback on EmersonTogether and the new policies here.
